Enough: Scenes from Childhood by Stephen Hough (Faber)
The formative life of an international pianist might be expected to focus on scales and arpeggios, but not here. Hough’s account of his childhood journey from an unmusical home in Cheshire to New York’s Carnegie Hall is witty and heartfelt, as he ricochets between study and dreaming, religious and sexual obsessions.
Goodbye Russia: Rachmaninoff in Exile by Fiona Maddocks (Faber)
Rachmaninoff left Russia in 1917, following the revolution, and never went back. His years in exile were very different from what went before, as he reinvented himself as a celebrity pianist rather than a composer. Maddocks profiles the homesick Rachmaninoff as he surrounds himself with an extraordinary generation of Russian émigrés.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
Opera for All: The Biography of Sir Peter Jonas by Julia Glesner (independently published)
While fighting a life-long battle against cancer, Peter Jonas enjoyed a leading career as an arts administrator. This biography, translated by Edward Maltby, follows him from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to English National Opera and the Bayerische Staatsoper, surveying the differences in cultural politics in the US, the UK and Germany.
Summer Books 2023
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Tuesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Wednesday: Fiction by Laura Battle
Thursday: Critics’ picks
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: History by Tony Barber
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